Optical fiber is being used extensively to provide communication paths in both local and long-haul networks. As the use of optical fiber for communications expands, there is a growing need for rapid on-site restoration of catastrophic fiber damage to minimize the effects on the network of accidental cuts. Catastrophic fiber damage is defined as being those situations where, because of the terrian or the type of disaster, ordinary restoration methods will require more than 12 hours to provide full service and the total revenue at risk after 6 hours of outage time will exceed $1 million. Frequently, long-haul fiber is located along a railroad right-of-way and is normally buried approximately three feet below ground level. It is not unusual, during a derailment, for a train to completely sever the optical cable. The time required to repair the severed cable will depend largely upon gaining access to the accident site. Obviously, if the derailment included a freight train carrying toxic materials, the optical fiber repair crew may be denied access to the accident site for many days. In many instances where an optical cable was cut, regardless of the cause, the time required for the cable to be repaired and service to be fully restored was over 6 hours. In several instances the outages exceeded 15 hours. If, in each instance, service could have been restored within 6 hours of the break, many hundreds of thousands of dollars in direct costs would have been saved.